Adding Insult to Injury
by VectorSigma101
Summary: A contest entry for firestar4ever's "Warrior Cats Writer's Games!" on Wattpad: Skidpaw has an unnatural fear of squirrels. Can he overcome this fear or will he take it to his grave?


**This was a contest entry for firestar4ever's Warrior Cats Writer's Games! The prompt was 'adding insult to injury' so I decided to make it a little one-shot of Jaggedstar's brother, Skidpaw. I hope you enjoy!**

**Warriors (c) Erin Hunter**

**Cats/Clans (c) Me and firestar4ever may use with my permission. **

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Skidpaw wasn't sure what about them made his blood turn into ice and his claws become rooted into the ground like an enormous oak tree whenever he saw one, but something about them just gave him a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. From their long bushy tails that resemble the horsetails he helped Waspwing gather the previous morning, to their large, round and soulless black eyes and their hideously long back paws, he despised them all.

The vicious monsters as fierce as a hoard of badgers that roamed the treetops: squirrels.

Skidpaw had never liked squirrels, though perhaps because when he was a kit exploring the woods with his older brothers, a squirrel decided to throw an acorn at him. And so did another, and another until a whole army of nut-throwing squirrels attacked and bruised Skidpaw's tiny frame. His older brothers had thought of it as an exciting and thrilling adventure, but not Skidpaw; he was terrorized for life and even today he panics whenever he hears the obnoxious chattering of the squirrels above him.

"Get a grip, Skidpaw," one of his brothers, named Jaggedpaw, growled and roughly shouldered him forward with his head. Skidpaw stumbled forward and let out a whimper when he heard the squirrels leaping from tree branch to tree branch above them. "You can't let these squirrels scare you forever."

"Yes I can!" Skidpaw insisted. "And…I'm not afraid of them! I just…don't like them, that's all."

"Oh, really?" Jaggedpaw snorted. "Then why don't you go up there and catch one to prove it?"

"You don't have to force him, Jaggedpaw," Skidpaw's other brother, Poisonpaw, insisted. "He can conquer his fear when he's older."

"I'm not afraid!" Skidpaw growled, fluffing up his brown and black fur to prove it.

His brothers didn't look so convinced at Skidpaw's act. Jaggedpaw merely shrugged nonchalantly while Poisonpaw gave Skidpaw an apologetic look.

"Admit it, Poisonpaw," Jaggedpaw started and turned towards the gray flecked tom, "Skidpaw is terrified of _squirrels_."

"I said I'm—" Skidpaw began, but Jaggedpaw stopped him with a raised gray paw.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time, you dope," Jaggedpaw mocked. His voice surprisingly turned softer, though it still held its usual roughness. "Skidpaw, no one's going to believe you are a brave warrior if they know you are afraid of squirrels!"

"Well…everyone's afraid of something!" Skidpaw insisted. "Kinkstar's not fond of owls, and Owlglare is afraid of the dark. Heck, even _Sparrowclaw_ has a fear of drowning!"

"Yeah, but they're not afraid of something that appears on the fresh-kill pile!" Jaggedpaw snapped. Skidpaw could tell that his older brother was quickly losing his patience, for his dark gray tabby shoulder fur rising. "We. Are. Cats. Cats. Eat. Squirrels." he spat.

"I know that!" Skidpaw growled. "My intelligence is not that of a kit's, you know."

"Then stop being a coward and face your fear already!"

"I'm not a coward!" Skidpaw snapped.

Jaggedpaw took a few paw steps forward until his nose was touching his younger brother's. "Then prove it." He motioned with his black striped tail towards a squirrel chewing a cob nut two fox-lengths away from where the littermates were arguing. "Go catch that squirrel over there and then _maybe_ I'll believe you, coward."

Skidpaw clenched his teeth and turned towards the squirrel. He crouched low to the ground and made sure his tail wasn't dragging behind him and slowly inched forward, careful not to rustle any twigs or leaves.

_This will show my brothers that I'm now a coward!_ Skidpaw thought proudly to himself. _The hunter now becomes the hunted!_

Still, he couldn't help but feel a little pessimistic as he approached the squirrel. What if it suddenly turns around and attacks? What if it has some of its colleagues around and they decide to throw nuts at him again? Skidpaw tried to push those fears to the back of his mind and tried to focus on the squirrel ahead of him; the stupid creature hadn't noticed him yet and as busy chewing on his cob nut. When he was about half a fox-length away from the critter, Skidpaw bunched up his muscles and leapt with a mighty yowl. The squirrel panicked and dashed away, leaving the forgotten cob nut lying on the ground. Determined not to lose this catch, Skidpaw pelted after the retreating prey over small boulders and through shrubs, and he could hear his brothers' thundering paw-steps and ragged breaths behind him.

Skidpaw was a tail-length away from digging his claws into warm flesh, when all of a sudden the squirrel made a sharp left and Skidpaw rammed head-first into an incoming tree. He blacked out for a few heartbeats and woke to a raging headache and the sound of laughter.

"Hahaha! I bet that tree came out of nowhere, huh, Skidpaw?" Poisonpaw joked.

"Why didn't you _skid_ to a stop, Skidpaw?" Jaggedpaw sneered before resuming laughing.

Skidpaw gritted his teeth and his fur grew hot; he hated when his brother's made fun of him, and it was even worse when what they were saying was true. Now he'd lost the squirrel and made a fool of himself…again.

While his littermates were busy laughing their tails off, Skidpaw quickly spotted the fluffy tail of a different squirrel not far. Determined to prove his brothers wrong, Skidpaw promptly shook his head and got into a crouch. He made sure to get closer to the squirrel before leaping with a yowl that ceased his brothers laughing. Like the previous squirrel, it dashed away before Skidpaw could dig his claws into it, but Skidpaw was committed to not let this one slip away. The BrambleClan apprentice focused on the brandish, bushy tail half a fox-length in front of him and was hypnotized by the rhythmic movement of the appendage.

_Almost…there…_

He could almost feel the squirrel's rough fur on his pads, and it was at that moment that he realized that his fear had completely dissipated. He had conquered his fear of squirrels!

It was also at that moment simultaneously that he realized that his brothers were frantically calling for him to cease chasing after the squirrel.

_Why would they do that?_ Skidpaw immediately thought and promptly ignored their cries. _They just want me to stop so I can lose this catch and make fun of me, again!_

"I'm not stopping this time, guys!" Skidpaw called over his shoulder. He quickly glanced at his brothers' astonishing panicked-filled eyes and wondered if they weren't joking this time.

_Why would they?_

He resumed his attention towards the squirrel in front of him and gaped when he realized that the soft undergrowth beneath his paws had turned into rugged, black surface. He had left the forest and came into a clear opening that stuck out in the forest like Jaggedpaw amongst the snow. He detected vibrations that were growing stronger by the heartbeat beneath his pads.

There was also the sound of thunder.

"Thunderpath!" Poisonpaw warned.

He finally understood his brothers' urgent warnings. _I've been running towards the Thunderpath this entire time! They were only trying to warn me._

"Skidpaw, move!" Jaggedpaw yowled from along the forest-edge as the thunder revealed itself to be an oncoming bright red monster. Its luminous white eyes nearly blinded Skidpaw's own ones and they stared directly into his soul. Skidpaw froze, like his paws were frozen onto the asphalt, as the monster crashed into his lean body and tossed him aside like a piece of fresh-kill. Jaggedpaw and Poisonpaw could only watch in horror as their younger brother laid motionless on the other side of the Thunderpath while the squirrel he had been chasing happily chattering away, completely unharmed, before disappearing into the forest.


End file.
